Phipps, Senior Appellate Judge. American Plumbing Professionals, Inc. (“APP”) appeals from the trial court’s order granting summary judgment to defendants ServeStar, LLC and former APP chief operating officer Aaron Miller (collectively, “ServeStar”) on APP’s claim for tortious interference with employment relations in this business dispute. On appeal, APP contends that the trial court erred in granting ServeStar summary judgment on this claim on the basis that the geographic limitations in two identical non-compete covenants are vague and therefore void and unenforceable. In the alternative, APP argues that the trial court erred in declining to modify the terms of the non-compete covenants pursuant to OCGA § 13-8-53 (d). For the following reasons, we vacate the trial court’s grant of summary judgment on the claim at issue here and remand the case to the trial court for further consideration. The record shows that APP filed a complaint for injunctive relief and damages against ServeStar and several former APP employees, which it subsequently amended several times. As relevant here, APP alleged that ServeStar induced former APP employees to violate their employment agreements with APP. All of the defendants filed a motion for summary judgment in May 2018. In June 2020, ServeStar filed a supplemental motion for summary judgment. In an October 2020 order, the trial court granted summary judgment to ServeStar on APP’s claims for tortious interference with employment relations and breach of fiduciary duty, but denied summary judgment to ServeStar on all remaining claims.[1] With respect to the tortious interference with employment relations claim, the trial court explained that ServeStar cannot be liable on the claim if the non-compete agreements in APP’s employment agreements are unenforceable. The trial court stated: In [a prior order dated] January 9, 2019 . . . , the Court already found that most of the non-compete agreements at issue contained vague geographic limitations, and thus were void and unenforceable. . . . However, the Court did not reach the issue whether former APP employees [Zylas] Hamilton and [Christian] Edmondson’s non-compete agreements were enforceable because they no longer worked for ServeStar. The Court now finds Hamilton and Edmondson’s employment agreements unenforceable and declines APP’s request to modify them under OCGA § 13-8-53 (d). The restrictive covenants in those contracts suffer from similar defects as the other non-compete covenants in the contracts found unenforceable in the January 9, 2019 Order. Hamilton’s non-compete agreement defines the geographic restriction as “the territory where Employee provided services on behalf of [APP] during the last twelve months of his or her employment,” which extended “throughout those parts of the United States of America where [APP] transacts business. . . . Edmondson’s non-compete agreement uses the same language in its geographic restriction. Thus, the restrictive covenants in the former APP employees’ employment contracts are unenforceable.
